David started thinking about his dogs back home. He had three beagles—Moe, Larry, and Curly—and they were the love of his life. David had always been an animal lover, and the thought of never seeing his dogs again pushed him over the edge. He started crying, and couldn’t wipe the tears away.
“Will you stop it?” Luke scolded him. “We’re not going to be dead bodies. We’ll find a way out of this. We always do. Remember Gettysburg? Remember Titanic? We thought we were in trouble. We thought it was all over. But we found a way out. You’ve got to think positively.”
“I’m thinking that we’re positively going to die,” David sobbed.
A few minutes passed while everybody tried to cool off.
“How much time do we have left?” Isabel asked.
“I don’t know,” David replied. “I can’t reach the timer.”
In his pocket, the timer counted down: 99 minutes.
“I’m hungry,” Julia said.
“How can you think about food?” Isabel asked. “We’re going to die here!”
“My stomach is growling,” Julia claimed. Then she shouted, “Guard! Guard!”
There were some footsteps outside the door, and then it opened. One of those thugs appeared.
“What do you want?” he asked gruffly.
“We’re hungry,” Julia replied. “Can we have something to eat, please?”
The thug looked at the four of them and left the room without closing the door. A minute later he came back, holding a plate with some kind of meat on it. He went over to Luke first.
“You need to keep up your strength,” the thug told him.
“Do you have a fork?” Luke asked.
“A what?”
Luke had no idea that he would have to wait several centuries for the fork to be invented. The Romans ate mainly with their fingers.
Even if they had forks, there was no way the guard was going to give Luke one. A fork could be used as a weapon.
The thug put a piece of meat into Luke’s mouth. He accepted it gratefully.
“Hey, I’m the one who asked for food,” Julia complained. “Why are you giving it to him?”
“Quiet over there!” the thug replied. He went over to David with the plate.
“No thank you,” David said. “That stuff looks gross.”
“You need to keep up your strength,” the thug told him.
“How come they need to keep up their strength but we don’t?” complained Isabel. “It’s not fair. What, are women second-class citizens around here?”
In fact, women were second-class citizens around there.
“Shut your mouth, wench!” the thug barked at her.
Meanwhile, he gave Luke a second piece of meat, which he chewed vigorously.
“Mmm, not bad,” Luke said. “What is this, chicken?”
“No, it is dormice,” said the thug, “sweetened with honey and sprinkled with poppy seeds.”
“It’s good,” Luke said. “Crunchy. I kind of like this dormice stuff.”
“It’s a mouse, you dope!” Julia said from across the room. “You’re eating a mouse.”
Luke stopped chewing for a moment. Then he started in chewing again.
“That’s good mouse,” he said.
“Oh, gross!” Isabel exclaimed. “I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Guard, is dormice really mouse?” asked Luke.
“Yes. Dormice is mouse. It is stuffed.”
“Stuffed with what?” asked Luke.
“Another dormouse, of course.”
“No wonder it’s so crunchy,” Luke said. “You really need to try this, David.”
“I don’t think so,” his friend replied. “I’m on a strict no-mouse diet.”
“Stupid slave,” said the thug as he left the room and locked the door behind him. “A smart slave would give anything for a dormouse.”
A few minutes passed. It didn’t look like the guard would be coming back any time soon. Time was running out. Even Luke was losing confidence.
“I think this might be the end of the line, you guys,” he said solemnly. “In an hour or so, Mount Vesuvius is going to blow its top. Miss Z will try to bring us back home, but we won’t be at the meeting spot. If those goats are still there, she’ll be in for a surprise. And when that happens, I guess, we’re cooked. In more ways than one.”
“I never thought it would end this way,” Isabel said softly.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Luke said. “I just want to say I love you guys.”
“I love you too, man,” David replied. “I thought you were kind of a jerk when we first met, but everything is different now.”
“Will you two knock it off?” Julia shouted. “I liked it better when boys didn’t have feelings.”
This discussion came to an abrupt end when the door suddenly swung open with a loud squeak that startled the Flashback Four. Two of the thugs had come back.
“Slaves!” the taller one shouted. “Come with us!”
“Well, it’s about time,” Julia said grumpily. “What’s the name of your supervisor? I’m going to write a strongly worded letter of complaint—”
“Not you,” the thug told her. “Just the males. Come with us.”
“What?!” both girls exclaimed.
The thugs unchained the boys and grabbed them by the elbows.
“Where are you taking us now?” David asked.
“You will see,” one of the thugs grunted.
“Hey, what about us?” Julia shouted after them. “We don’t want to stay here all by ourselves!”
The thugs weren’t listening. They dragged Luke and David out of the dungeon.
As they were escorted away, Luke shouted back at the girls, “If you’re able to get free, head for the meeting spot.”
CHAPTER 11LET’S PUT ON A SHOW
THE THUGS PULLED LUKE AND DAVID UP THE steps and out onto the street. Both boys shielded their eyes. It was almost eleven o’clock in the morning now, and the sun was high in the sky. If they hadn’t been blinded, it would have been tempting to make a break for it.
Right outside was a wooden vehicle, with a horse tethered to it. It was almost the size of a bus, like a giant cage on wheels. Through the bars the boys saw a group of men, sitting sullenly and not speaking. They looked tired, disheveled, and beaten down.
A red-haired man hopped off the horse that was pulling the wagon. He had a whip in his hand, which he used to control the horse as well as the men in the cage. He opened a
